Be Compassionate and Be Perfect... Tuesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time (6th June 2023)

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For the time we have loved only those who love us, Lord, have mercy...

For the times we failed to love those whom we do not like so much, Christ, have mercy... 

And so doing, for the times we have failed to be perfect just as our heavenly father is perfect, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Second Corinthians 8:1-9

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 146:2, 5-6, 7, 8-9

Gospel, Matthew 5:43-48

Be Compassionate and Be Perfect... 

It’s almost always the case that we human beings engage in a barter exchange when it comes to love… 

We are ready to give as much as we receive…

If you do this, I will do that…

You scratch my back, I will scratch your back…

This seems to be the normal rule of thumb that operates in and around us…

In the Gospel text of today, Jesus challenges this existing thesis of love, this transactional, barter exchange, or conditional way of love when he says… you have heard this, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Then he gives his antithesis - But I say to you….love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you… 

This is his new commandment, the commandment of love… an antithesis to what they had already known and practiced as love. An anti-thesis to what we often understand and practice as love…

Behind this new commandment/ behind his new anti-thesis, behind his new proposition, Jesus’ rationale/premise/his argument is this:

For if you love only those who love you, what is so great about it? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that?

Then, he goes on to give his synthesis…Jesus gives the aim of his mission, the aim of his thesis, in life… « Be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect »

And, how are we going to be perfect? 

By loving one another.. Especially by loving our enemies, those who persecute us, those who disrespect and neglect us, those who do not agree with us, and those who challenge us in life…

It can be my spouse, it can be my companion at my workplace, my children, my parents, my neighbors, my church members, or my team leaders…

Is it possible?

Yes, it is…. Because, in the first reading, as St. Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians reminds us, our master/our guru, Jesus Christ, has already shown us that it is possible to love those who do not like us/ hate us/ insult us/ persecute us

The love of Jesus Christ for us was so much that, though he was rich, he made himself poor, empty, like a lamb dragged to be slaughtered, in order that we become rich, that we become whole, that we experience and remain in love…

How congruent is your definition of love with that of Jesus’ definition and his manifestation of love? 

How perfect are you going to be during this week, in loving one another after the very example of Christ?

He waits….For you and me….11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (17th June 2023)

For the times we have failed to respond to your call, Lord, have mercy...

Having responded, for the times we have failed to obey your commands, Christ, have mercy...

In so doing, for the times we have failed to fulfill your will, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Second Corinthians 5:14-21

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12

Gospel, Matthew 5:33-37

 He waits….For you and me….

When we look at God’s economy or plan of salvation in the bible, we can see that there is a distinct way in which God calls human beings, that there exists a certain pattern in which God, the caller, the one who is called, and the calling take place. 

It has always been the case that when God called, it was the duty of human beings to respond to his call. 

And when people responded to him affirmatively, God always commissioned them…

And when he commissioned them, it was expected that human beings would obey him…

And this obedience isn’t blind obedience. Because, when we obey God, he always gives us a promise…. A joy-filed hope to live by, an aim to achieve, and a purpose and a motivation for living and for doing what we are supposed to be doing…   

Take, for example, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Paul, to name a few…

The good news is this: whenever God promised people something, the Bible guarantees that God has always kept his promise….

So, God calls, and human beings respond;

And when human beings respond, God commands; 

And when God commands, human beings obey;

And when human beings obey, God promises;

And when God promises, human beings live in hope because God keeps his promise. 

In this light, if we see the first reading today…

God had called Moses, and Moses had responded to him affirmatively,

And when Moses responded to God, he commanded him with a mission, of taking the Israelites out of the bondage of Phero in Egypt.

And when Moses accepted this mission with obedience, it was then that God promised him that he would lead the Israelites to the promised land flowing with milk and honey. 

And it was when the Israelites were on their way to realizing what God has promised that we find today’s first reading which says “When they were on their way to realizing the promise that God had made for them,  that God called Moses once again at Sinai and reminds him how he has kept his promise” 

Not only he reminds them what he has thus far done in their lives and how he has been working with them to keep his promise, but he further assures them of his promise saying “If you hear my voice and keep my  covenant, you shall be my special possession”

Taken this way, one might ask, if God demands of us and we have to obey him, then how difficult it is to be a Christian?

I would say, yes, it is difficult…because our God is not a God who just commands and demands so we should obey him. 

In fact, he ought to do so because, as the second reading of Saint Paul to the Corinthians reminds us, it is he who loved us first…and showed his utmost love for us, even when we were still sinners, by sending his only son to die for us….

God ought to do it all the more because, as the Gospel reading of today reminds us, in the person of Christ, he is moved in his heart with pity because he found us to be like sheep without a shepherd. 

Christ is so moved, so much so that he asks his disciples to pray: “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few. So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.”

It is this movement in his heart that enables Christ to take some concrete actions on behalf of mankind. There we see not only the choosing of the disciples but, in so doing, once again the repetition of the pattern of God’s calling in the history of mankind:

He calls his disciples by name, and they respond to him;

And there are twelve of them;

Then he commissions them;

Go, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons;

Of course with the promise that ‘Kingdom of God is at hand’. 

It was just yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Christ, and being Saturday immediately following the feast of the sacred heart of Christ, we celebrate the feast of the immaculate heart of Mary….

So, looking through the heart of Christ, let us ask ourselves, how plenty is the harvest today? 

Let’s look at the world we live in today, at our nation, at our neighborhood, at our family, at our own personhood, and at the whole of creation? 

Do I/we live in a way that I/we do not become a reason for Christ’s Heart to sink? In a way that doesn’t bring sorrow to the heart of Mary? In a way that doesn’t hurt the hearts of my brothers and sisters around me? In a way that doesn’t hurt the creation of God? 

How soaring must God’s heart be when he looks at me and all about me, today?

And how am I gonna respond to his calling in such a way that I am gonna bring peace to his heart today?

Through prayer? through a change of heart? Through becoming a disciple/laborer in his mission?  

Christ waits…On the cross with his hands, feet, and heat pierced he waits… in the tabernacle in the decorated loneliness of his heart he waits… In the pain and sorrow of the hearts of my family members (parents, children, spouses) and the brothers and sisters around me he waits… In the agony of the heart of creation today, he waits….

Yes, he waits….God waits…. For you and me….

And in our response to him, he is gonna promise us something today…What is it that God is gonna promise you today that he cannot but keep? 

Feast of St. Anthony of Padua (13th June 2023)

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My dear sisters and brothers,

For the times we have not realized that each one of us is the salt and the light of the earth, Lord, have mercy...

For the times we have failed to realize that the other too are is the salt and the light of the world, Christ, have mercy... 

For the times we have failed to realize that we have the likeness of Christ and so, acted out accordingly, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Tobit 2:9-14

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 112:1-2, 7-8, 9

Gospel, Mark 12:13-17

My dear sisters and brothers, immediately after the Beatitudes or the ‘attitudes to be’ that Jesus wants us to inculcate and grow in our lives, in the gospel text of today, Jesus reminds us of three images that we should become like…

You are the salt of the earth…

You are the light of the world….

You are a mountain, a mountain set on a hill…

Now, if we consider the intrinsic nature of these three things, in reality, it’s so obvious that none of them stands for itself…

Salt is to bring taste…

Light is to brighten a space…

A city, a city set on a mountain, is for others to see, to admire…

So, it s the intrinsic quality/property of these things that it is by losing themselves that they find their true identity, true meaning, and true purpose in life….

So Jesus says, if salt has lost its saltiness, then what is the use of it?

If the light is covered with a basket, then what is the use of it?

A city, can it be hidden at all?

Likewise, my dear sisters and brothers, Jesus is reminding us today, it is an intrinsic quality of those who follow him to be Christ-like…

What it means to be Christ-like?

It is to lose oneself for the sake of God and for the benefit of others….

And Jesus says, In Matthew 16:24-26, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it….”

Therefore, as disciples of Christ, if we lose our Christ-likeness, then what is our identity, what is the meaning of our life, and what is the purpose of our living? 

Being Christ-like, just like salt, light, and a city set on a mountain, we cannot but lose ourselves. It is by losing ourselves for the service of God and his people, just as Jesus did, we find our true Christlikeness within…It is in doing so, we become true disciples of Christ…

St. Anthony of Padua whose feast we celebrate today is known in popular devotion as finder of the lost objects…. The saint of lost and found…

But, truly, St.Anthony of Padua, the 12th-century Franciscan Friar, found himself truly losing himself totally in the providence of God. 

Wasn’t it the characteristic of salt, light, and a city set on a mountain that Jesus wants us to contemplate today?

“Saints are like the stars” St. Anthony seems to have said in one of his homilies…. “In his providence, Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet, they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ?”

Are you the salt of the earth? Are you the light of the world? Are you a city that is set on a mountain? 

How Christ-like are you today as a follower?   

Are you that star, hidden in Christ’s heart, ready to shine no sooner than you perceive his invitation, for God’s greater glory and for the benefit of his people? 

Tuesday of the 9th week in Ordinary Time (6th June 2023)

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For the times we have failed to realize that we belong to God, Lord, have mercy...

For the times we have treated things of this word as things in heaven, Christ, have mercy...

For the times we have failed to realize the difference between the things of this world and the things in heaven, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Tobit 2:9-14

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 112:1-2, 7-8, 9

Gospel, Mark 12:13-17

My dear sisters and brothers,

As human beings, we make choices all the time…Even now, you may be making a choice between actively listening to the homily and passively listening to me/or not listening to me at all…

When was the last time you were in a dilemma wherein you had to make a choice between two equally undesirable options? 

Or between two seemingly attractive alternatives wherein choosing one would eventually exclude the privileges of the other?

In the gospel text of today, we find that such a situation is forced upon Jesus wherein whatever choice that he would make was gonna offend either one group of people or the other. 

The context is this: At the time of Jesus, Jerusalem, and the surrounding area were occupied by the Romans, and they imposed census or senses taxes/state taxes that had to be paid by every adult of that time. But the people were not for it. Because they didn’t wanna pay taxes to foreigners or foreign rule. So, it is in this background that religious leaders, the adversaries of Jesus at that time, come to Jesus with this double-edged, loaded question the intention of which they themselves knew, as the evangelist Mark puts it, to test Jesus: Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to the emperor?

Now, if Jesus were to support the payment, then he would have made himself highly unpopular among the people. On the other hand, if he were to say No, then he would have been considered a political suspect by the Roman authorities.

I tend to think that caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, Jesus in his time seemed to have practiced a method of answering that modern psychology reaffirms today. That is, where the problem is, there lies the answer also. It is often because the issue is so overwhelming that one finds it difficult to see the answer through and through by himself or herself. 

So Jesus, ask his own adversaries, the ones who questioned him, to present him with a coin in which was an image of Cesar, the emperor…

And in there, he found the answer… Whatever belongs to Cesar, the emperor, the state, and the government, give to it. But, Jesus doesn’t stop at that. He added…” What belongs to God, give to God…”

What has he done, he has not only made them find their own answers, but in so doing, Jesus had also elevated his adversaries to a higher level by making them aware that even though the denarius in their hand belonged to the state, the hands that held them, in other words, they themselves, belonged to God…

“What belongs to God, Give to God…”

What is it that belongs to God? It’s you and I - the Human Person.

Perhaps the denarius you hold, the dollar in your wallet, the bill in your pocket, the money in your bank, the treasures you possess, and the properties your own, belong to the state… But, you who hold them ultimately belong to God.

It is so true because in Genesis we read that “Human being is made after the image and likeness of God”.

And, St. Augustine adds, “Our Hearts are made for you Lord, and they find no rest until they find their rest in you…”

Can I understand this difference today? 

What Changes am I gonna bring inside as well as outside of me as a person who has realized that I belong to God? 

Accordingly, in my choices made hereafter, be it choosing between two or more equally undesirable alternatives, or between two or more seemingly attractive options, how indifferent am I gonna be with regard to the things of this world?

As St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises puts it, in my making choices, what is the extent to which I am gonna seek that which brings greater glory to God and more help to one another?